Beyond
by LucyMeadows
Summary: A dystopian future where people are expected to live under the harsh rule of a dictatorship. The law is enforced by a brutal police force known as The Guard, the people are monitored constantly, and hope is running out. In this cruel reality Cosima and Delphine find happiness in each other's company. But does Cosima have ulterior motives for their renewed friendship?
1. Chapter 1

An insistent knocking on the door snapped Delphine out of study mode as she looked up from her books for the first time in hours. She checked her watch, 11pm, she'd missed curfew, _merde_. She briefly considered that the knocking on the door might be one of The Guard, come to drag her off to prison for breaking curfew. But then, why would they be knocking? She cautiously rose from her designated desk in the medical lab and made her way to the large oak door. 'Hello?' She asked through the wood, still half expecting The Guard on the other side. 'Hello? Delphine?' The voice was strained, her name spoken through gritted teeth, but still she recognised it. She flung the door wide open immediately and greeted the visitor with a wide smile, 'Cosima!' Her eyes inspected the other girls face, not quite believing that her old friend was really here, but when her gaze moved downward she spotted a dirty white cloth tied haphazardly around Cosima's hand, rapidly turning red with blood. 'Come in! Come in!' She snapped quickly into doctor mode, without even realising it, 'How did it happen? Can you tell me the exact nature of the injury? How much pain are you experiencing?' Cosima laughed through her pain, a light chuckle that echoed off the walls of the empty lab, 'Now now, Dr. Cormier, is that really how you treat an old friend, straight to business mode?' She grinned, 'aren't you pleased to see me?' Delphine tsked, 'Cosima, _old friend_ , you're dripping blood over my lab.' Cosima looked down where sure enough a few droplets of blood had rolled from her palm on to the floor. 'Guess you'd better sew me up then, doc,' she made her way over to Delphine's desk, her's being the only one with the lamp still on. Everyone else had gone home hours ago. She sat and placed her hand under the light for Delphine to inspect, just like all the other times before. The two friends rarely spoke these days but every now and then, when Cosima had been a little too careless at work, she found herself in the medical lab seeking her assistance. Delphine always grumbled about being exploited and how she should be getting paid for this but she didn't mind, not really. 'What happened this time?' she asked as she unwound the cloth, not being able to hide a grimace at the bloody mess she found underneath, 'splinter.' Cosima shrugged, 'down at the docks again. I slipped when unloading the boxes,' Delphine could see the wound clearly now, having gently wiped the blood away with some antiseptic wipes, she narrowed her eyes at the large shard of wood impaling Cosima's palm, 'Don't they give you gloves down at the docks?'

'They do,' Cosima grinned sheepishly, 'I lost them'

Delphine raised an eyebrow as she poked about in her medical box finding the right tools 'lost them?'

'In a bet.'

'In a bet?'

'I bet against Moris.' A sheepish grin formed on her face 'He's a snail.'

Delphine paused, met Cosima's eye, 'Moris is a snail?'

'Yup. A damn fast one apparently.'

'Let me get this right, you lost your one pair of protective equipment because you were betting on racing snails?'

'I guess it's lucky I never became a doctor after all, huh? I'd have probably bet away half the medical supplies cupboard by now-ow! That hurt!'

'Sorry,' Delphine muttered, but she didn't look sorry at all, 'I'm not surprised it hurt, that thing was really wedged in there, it looked like someone had hammered it in on purpose.'

Cosima shrugged, cradling her sore hand, 'I've always been pretty clumsy huh?'

Delphine threw the splinter and bloody cloth into the bin and passed Cosima a roll of bandages and some cream, 'I don't think it needs stitches, but you should probably wrap it up, I assume you still remember simple bandaging techniques?'

'Yeah, yeah,' Cosima's tongue poked out in concentration as she carefully applied a generous amount of cream to the cut and then wrapped it up.

'Very good,' Delphine nodded, impressed,

There was a moment of awkward silence and Delphine stood, starting to pack her her equipment and then her books, Cosima's hand reached out, stopping her from packing up her last text book as she read the title aloud, "Optimal Medical Therapy with or without PCI for Stable Coronary Disease" wow, catchy title, you've gotta tell me how it ends.' Delphine exhaled humorously as she stuffed it into her bag, 'it's not that boring actually.'

'Obviously,' Cosima smiled, 'Something must have been interesting, to keep good girl Dr. Cormier out past curfew.' She fake gasped, as though she'd never broken curfew before, and for much worse reasons than studying. Delphine made a face back at her 'and what about you, what's keeping you out this time?'

'Nothing too illegal, I promise. But then I had this bloody great splinter in my hand and I was walking home thinking, hey wouldn't it be great if I knew someone with the medical knowledge to remove this, and as if by magic I saw your light still on in the lab.'

'How did you know it was my light?'

'Cos I know you. And I know that there's a big test coming up for you medical students, so I know you'd be up all night studying, of course.'

Delphine narrowed her eyebrows, 'And how did you know there's a big test coming up?' She asked, 'Is that the type of thing you discuss down at the docks?'

'Mmh totally, they're all massive geeks like me, isn't it obvious?' Delphine thought about the other dock workers she'd seen, the tall man with the bulging biceps and the smaller, but no less intimidating rocker girl with the big black boots and ferocious scowl. 'How is it though, really,' Cosima continued, ''Is it all dissecting frogs and icky squishy things?'

'Haha no, well, there are some icky squishy things, but mostly it's just studying charts from the hospital and reading big old dusty volumes.'

'But you must get to work in the hospital sometimes, right?'

'Sometimes, but it's not common.'

Cosima seemed to consider this, 'but you have access right, I mean-you're basically a doctor now! You must get to visit the hospital.'

'For certain occasions, they don't give us free reign just because we're studying medicine Cosima. And I'm hardly nearly a doctor, I have at least four years left of training.' She stood and yawned, 'I think it's time we got going.'

'Mmh I agree.' Cosima stood too and took Delphine's bag from her, swinging it over her own shoulder,

'What are you doing?'

'Walking you home of course. Consider it a thank you for the hand'

'Cosima it is way past curfew,'

'Exactly, can't have a pretty girl like you walking home all alone now can we?'

'Oh and you'll stop any attacker will you? Have you even grown a bit since middle school?'

'Hey! Working on the docks has got me ripped!' She flexed her arms at Delphine, 'and I'm 5'4' she grumbled.

Delphine rolled her eyes and switched off the lamp, 'Come on then, tiny protector.' and Cosima eagerly followed behind.


	2. Chapter 2

They had just crossed Second Street and were only a few more minutes from Delphine's home when they ran into trouble, a loan member of The Guard patrolling the area shouted at them from across the street 'Hey! You there! What are you doing out after curfew?' The pair froze as the man jogged over, making a show of unhooking his gun from his belt. Cosima started to panic, there was no way someone with her status could talk her way out of this one, she debated making a run for it, calculating the distances in her head. Delphine, perhaps still in tune with her old best friend, shook her head gently and the back of her hand brushed up against Cosima's 'stay here' it seemed to say 'we'll be okay.' The Kingsman double took when he realised the law-breakers were two young girls, something like disappointment crossed his face, there would be no fight for him tonight, Cosima's skin crawled and the man sighed, 'Name, age, reason for breaking curfew?'

'I am Delphine Cormier, I am eighteen, I was studying in the medical halls and lost track of time.' The man looked up from his notebook as the name rang a distant bell in his head, he touched the top of his cap and nodded to Delphine, before turning his disapproving eyes to Cosima, 'and you?' Cosima opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Delphine had wrapped an arm through hers and spoken up, 'it is my fault, when I realised how late it was I was scared to walk alone, there have been such rumours lately. So I called Cosima to walk with me, to keep me safe.' Delphine was doing her best impression of a frightened schoolgirl, and Cosima didn't know whether to laugh or not, The Guard however, believed every word of it. He put his notebook back into his pocket. 'Well Miss Cormier, I can understand your reluctance to walk alone, these streets can be mighty dangerous.' _Of course they are_ , thought Cosima looking down the still and silent streets, _they look deadly,_ 'but you know, you can always call for one of us to walk you home.' He gave a winning smile and Cosima only then realised how handsome he was, she looked up at Delphine, to see if his charm was working on her, in the shadows of the street light it was impossible to tell. He was handing her something now, a black card with gold writing, 'this is my card, the front has the general number for The Guard but the back has my own personal number. You feel free to call it whenever you need me. These streets can be scary, and I think you'll feel a little braver with a Guard than a 5 ft dock worker.'

'I'm 5 4'' Cosima muttered, but no one seemed to hear her

'Thank you-' Delphine read the name on the card '-Hans, I'll make sure to keep it safe.' and with that they were allowed to walk away, Hans going back to patrolling second street.

'Gross.' Cosima noted, before swinging herself around and continuing down the road, she paused when she noticed the taller girl was not following her, instead Delphine seemed to be looking after The Guard, lost in her own thoughts. 'Huh? What was that?' She shook herself out and in a few easy steps had caught up with Cosima, 'nothing,' Cosima shrugged, she had forgotten that not everybody regarded The Guard with such animosity. And Delphine certainly seemed taken by the older man. 'He was kind, don't you think, to give me his card! And with his personal number!'

'Oh my! What an honour! Why Delphine, you should marry him immediately!' The blonde laughed at Cosima's impression of a lovestruck young girl and bumped into her shoulder, 'I had forgotten your dislike for authority'

'Wow, we really haven't talked in a long time if you've managed to forget that,' Delphine suddenly looked saddened by Cosima's words and she felt the need to comfort her, 'But you know, it doesn't matter, just cos we haven't hung out in a while, doesn't mean we're not still mates, right. I've told everyone down the docks about all the trouble we used to get into.' Delphine laughed, a smile appearing on her face again, 'all the trouble that _you_ used to get into!' She emphasised the _you_ with a little poke to Cosima's side that made her squeal. 'Hey! You joined in too… sometimes. I seem to remember someone being only too willing to open all the cages in the school, we watched the caretaker run around trying to catch those pigs for hours.'

'Yes well, that was different, that was setting those poor things free! We were advocates!'

'Still, I don't suppose you talked about that on your personal statement.'

Suddenly Delphine grew serious again, 'Cosima, you know they are still accepting invitations to the-'

'Oh, look where we are.' Cosima flourished with her bandaged hand, 'You're home, m'lady. But now, like a proper gentleman, I must walk you to your door.' She opened the gate, easily remembering the little pull and twist you had to do to make in unstick, and nodded to Delphine, 'After you.' The taller girl rolled her eyes at Cosima's dramatics but complied, brushing past her oh so slightly in the process. They reached the front door and Delphine took out her key to unlock it, turning as she opened it and spotting Cosima's expecting face, 'what?'

'I believe this is the part where the gentleman is rewarded for walking the lady home.'

A scoff from Delphine 'I believe that a _gentleman_ ' she poked Cosima's chest 'would not be expecting any kind of _reward_ ' but she leant down anyway and kissed Cosima on her cheek, as was customary in her culture, as she had done a thousand times before. Cosima moved her head forward slightly and Delphine saw a strange expression come over her but before she could ask about it they were interrupted by a loud shout.

'Delphine?' the voice came from somewhere inside the house and was accompanied by a creaking door. Unsure of what to do Cosima lingered on the doorstep, 'bonsoir Papa,' Delphine ran to give the man appearing in the hallway a big hug. Dr Cormier was exactly how Cosima remembered him, although with perhaps a little more grey in his hair. Looking over his daughter's shoulder he was caught off guard by the sight of an extremely awkward Cosima.

'Cosima?' he asked, 'what a surprise this is. Please, come in.' he motioned for Cosima to enter but she shook her head,

'No no, it's late. I should be getting back. It was lovely to see you again though, Dr Cormier.'

'Nonsense!' He scoffed before checking his watch, 'My god, it is late. Far too late to be sending a young woman home alone. You'll get into trouble out there.'

'Yes Papa! We were interrogated by some Guard on the walk over here! Luckily he was very kind to us' Cosima scoffed at Delphine's interpretation of interrogating, thinking that the encounter was probably one of the most civil she'd ever had with a member of The Guard.

'How awful. Is everything okay?'

'Yes, I told him I was studying late and that Cosima was walking me home- which is the truth by the way.' She at least had the dignity to look a little guilty 'sorry I'm home so late.'

'It's fine.' her father waved her off, 'but it really is too late to be out now.' He ushered Cosima inside without another word, shutting and locking the door behind him. 'Cosima you can sleep in the guest room if you like.' He stifled a yawn, 'I apologise but I really must be getting some rest now.'

'Oh Papa, you weren't up all night studying the new charts were you?'

Dr Cormier gave a crinkled smile and kissed his daughter on both cheeks, before doing the same to Cosima, who blushed slightly at the familiarity in which he had greeted her with.

'Bon nuit, girls. Try not to stay up too late.' He gave a knowing wink and disappeared upstairs to bed.


End file.
